Tim Riley's Blog, page 11
July 25, 2013
Is Spotify bad for music?
The Eraser by Thom Yorke (Photo credit: horizontal.integration)
Is Spotify bad for music? | Comment is free | The Observer #
Something unsettling about agreeing with Yorke in principle even though I respect his music more than admire or listen to it, and have a reflexive aversion to millionaires who complain about getting bad deals from the multinationals they bed down with. Of course, drawing attention to said deals = good. Don’t blame the messenger. But still. As a consumer, Spotify solves all kinds of problems and invites huge new resources for discovering new music, from this side of the fence, advantages FAR outweigh the pitfalls. Would happily sign on to a social mov’t dedicated to upping musician fees based on targets, quotas, some new creative benchmarks. #
WBUR’s ON POINT with Tom Ashbook did a Spotify show last week… #
BRING POPCORN to watch the era’s unfolding disaster epic: publishing jumps off the very same cliff the music industry did ten years ago… #
Related articles
Thom Yorke Pulls Songs From Spotify
Google Play Music All Access vs. Spotify
Thom Yorke, Nigel Godrich Exit Spotify In Protest: “New artists get paid fuck all.”
Musicians’ Union demands new pay deal from Spotify
Spotify hits back at Thom Yorke criticism
Sam Duckworth: Thom Yorke’s right – artists can’t survive on Spotify streams
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July 22, 2013
McCartney, Spector, Wings and Now
The Long and Winding Road (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“The Long and Winding Road” # #
Here’s my nit to pick with McCartney: He notoriously hated Phil Spector’s overblown production on this ballad, and the spare “Let It Be … Naked” version was released as a corrective, yet when he plays the song live, he has Wix synthesize the Spector orchestrations. At least there’s no choir. #
–Mark Caro in Paul McCartney plays Beatles, Wings at Miller Park in Milwaukee – chicagotribune.com. #
Related articles
What Paul McCartney Taught Me This Week About Writing
Rumor: Nirvana reunion at McCartney concert?
Send us your photos of the Paul McCartney concert
Paul McCartney & Wings Soar in ‘Rockshow’ (Review)
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June 28, 2013
FATHER’S DAY RERUNS
[via: eventbrite.com] #
A relative of my wife’s worked on this documentary, which proved both thoughtfully nostalgic and psychologically harrowing. File under: Murry Wilson Narcissistic Father Syndrome. #
Showtime: Family Band: The Cowsills Story. #
MORE FAMILY DIRT: Sly Stone’s Financial Downfall Detailed in Court Ruling. #
June 15, 2013
Retronaut – Girls in the Window
Girls in the Window, by Ormond Gigli (Retronaut) #
Related articles #
Awesome Photos Of Buddy Holly And Waylon Jennings In A Photo Booth
Retronaut for Prompts & Inspiration
We Dare You to Not Laugh at These Vintage Visions of the Future
Stunning Behind-the-Scenes Photos Show Iconic Movies in a New Light
See Salvador Dali’s Illustrations for the 1969 Edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
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June 11, 2013
May 24, 2013
Banksy Coke Bottle
April 22, 2013
DETERIORATA XIII:1 BERNSTEIN, 50 SHADES, CLIVE JAMES, EE CUMMINGS, BELUSHI
By far the most influential musicology of my young adulthood, steering me towards specialization. #
via Open Culture: Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures (1973). See Elitism for Dummies (on Young People’s Concerts, 2005) #
via NYRB: Why So Popular? by Tim Parks #
Touching yourself” was strictly forbidden in the Parks family. My father was an evangelical clergyman, my mother his zealous helper. The hand mustn’t stray below the belt, because such pleasures were always accompanied by evil, lascivious thoughts. Yet as Dusty Springfield memorably sang in “Son of a Preacher Man,” “being good isn’t always easy, no matter how hard I try,” and at thirteen for this son of a preacher man it was impossible. To get around the conflict—the sexual imperative and the fear of falling into sin—I would imagine going through the entire Anglican marriage ceremony with whatever girl was the object of my desire before allowing the hand to move to its inevitable destination; in this way, I hoped, my fantasies would be conjugal rather than lecherous and any sin much diminished. #
via NYTimes: “If you tell Americans that your narrative is unreliable, they don’t smile: they call the cops…” . #
via Brain Pickings: ee cummings “pretty how town” (Harvard, 1953). #
via pitch interactive: Drone Strikes Visualized. #
via Slate: Woodward’s Belushi v. The Sequester. #
Related articles
ee cummings
A Collection of E. E. Cummings’s Poems
Legendary Composer Leonard Bernstein on the Future of Music, Harvard 1973
16 Ways to Carry a Heart
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April 8, 2013
DENK, SCHWARTZ, SEBOK
Jeremy Denk wrote a piece in the current New Yorker about two of his piano teachers, one of whom we shared. A friend wrote to ask about my reaction, so I replied: #
“Joseph Schwartz was really quite a terrific teacher, and invested in the idea of teaching on an individual level. We were all friendly in his studio and played for one another informally all the time. He had no cult of personality, and although his musicianship had virility and danger, he was a quiet man who acted as though all the great ideas were there for the taking. He exerted a quiet idealism that kept growing on you long after lessons stopped. #
“Sebok gave a terrific master class at Eastman, and my teacher there, Rebecca Penneys, had worked with him in Indiana. He had that gentleman’s cigarette holder Denk describes , and every word he uttered seemed fragrant with possibility. I recognize much of his philosophy about motion and physicality from what Penneys taught. Sounds like an incurable eccentric with pedagogical limitations. #
“I wish Denk’s piece had been longer…” #
